The vacancy rate for commercial retail space in central Arkansas stood at 5.3 percent in second-quarter 2014, compared with the first-quarter rate of 5.2 percent and the year-earlier rate of 6 percent.

Vacancy rates for the northwest Arkansas office space market dropped almost one-half percent to 9.3 percent during the first quarter of 2014. The rate was 9.7 percent in the last quarter of 2013, according to data collected by Xceligent Inc. of Independence, Mo.

Chris Polychron is an executive broker with 1st Choice Realty in Hot Springs, specializing in residential sales, and is the 2014 president-elect of the National Association of Realtors . He has served on the National Association of Realtors board of directors since 2002. Polychron was elected president of the Arkansas Realtors Association in 2003.

The National Association of Realtors, based in Washington, D.C., last month released its “Commercial Real Estate Outlook” for the quarter. The report details the market outlook in major commercial real estate sectors and summarizes the forecasts for all of 2013 and 2014.